The reply of the Yamên to this "identic note" was a lengthy argument to show that publication in the "Peking Gazette" of the Imperial Edict against "Boxers" would be contrary to "an established rule of public business in China which it is impossible to alter"; and that, furthermore, it would be useless, because the common people of the provinces would not see it. Not satisfied with this reply, the Ministers, on the 10th of March, addressed another identic note to the Yamên, in the following words: "Acknowledging receipt of your Highness' and your Excellencies' note of the 7th March, I regret to say that it is in no way either an adequate or satisfactory reply to my notes or my verbal requests concerning the suppression of the two Societies known as the 'Big Sword' and 'Fist of Righteous Harmony.' I therefore am obliged to repeat the requests, and because of the rapid spread of these Societies, proof of which is accumulating every day, and which the Imperial Decree of the 11th January greatly encouraged, I insist that an absolute prohibitive Decree for all China, mentioning these two Societies by name, be forthwith issued and published in the 'Peking Gazette,' as was done with the Decree of the 11th January. Should I not receive a favourable answer without delay, I shall report the matter to my Government, and urge strongly the advisability of the adoption of other measures for the protection of the lives and property of British subjects in China." On the same day, each of the Ministers cabled the following recommendation to his government: "If the Chinese Government should refuse to publish the Decree we have required, and should the state of affairs not materially improve, I would respectfully recommend that a few ships of war of each nationality concerned should make a naval demonstration in North Chinese waters. Identic recommendations are being telegraphed home by my four colleagues above-mentioned." On the 16th, Sir Claude wrote: "No reply has yet been received from the Tsung-li Yamên to the note of the 10th March, and it was with serious misgivings as to the attitude of the Chinese Government on this question that I read yesterday the official announcement of the appointment of Yü Hsien, lately Governor of Shantung, to the post of Governor of Shansi. The growth and impunity of the anti-Christian Societies in Shantung has been universally ascribed to the sympathy and encouragement accorded to them by this high officer, and his conduct has for some time past formed the subject of strong representations on the part of several of the foreign Representatives." _Great Britain, Papers by Command: China, Number 3, 1900, pages 3-26._